ARA Inc. Received Collection letter

[Anonymous]

I just received a letter from ARA Inc claiming that I owe a creditor from almost 12 years ago...I am pretty sure I paid that debt off, but do not have any record prove it. Any suggestions how I can dispute this? Is this even in the SOL?

[bicknar]

Hello,

Thanks to everyone's input I followed up on mine and haven't seen or heard a thing since.  No marks on the credit report or nothin.  Anywho, I would recommend filing any correspondance that they send and not respond.  If you can verify independantly that you did in fact pay this debt off then even better in case they get beligerant as they did with me.  However yes, Mine was SOL as well and as I was able to verify that I made no payments within any SOL terms I was confident that they were blowing smoke.  I was in the same situation, I though I paid that off but it was so long ago I didn't have records or memories. 

Let them spin their wheels.  You will be amazed at how many violations this company will rack up.  My advice is to have fun and don't let them get to you.  Not worth worrying or getting upset about.  It is quite amusing when you can watch them try to collect on something they know they can not.

A

[Anonymous]

I have received collection letters & calls from ARA Inc.  I had an account w/Citi Bank  over 7 yrs. ago but never paid off.  After contacting Citi, I was told There was no  balance nor any information on me.  I must assume they wrote the acct. off.   ACA claims they bught the acct. from  City but City told me they do not do that.   This must be a scam.

[bicknar]

wow. Haven't been here in ages. But yeah. I sent them a foad letter and never heard back. Good luck.

[maxwell11]

Received a call from ARA, Inc on May 8 from a Ms. Stone saying that I had a citibank credit card and owed $9,000.  When asked when was this from she said 2002.  I said I owed nothing and this is way past the SOL.  She yelled forget about the SOL and she was going to call my employer.  The next day I got an e-mail from myfico.com saying that there was in inquiry from ARA on my credit report.  How can they possibly have the access to my credit report? How do I get that inquiry off my report?  Can this company do any more harm to me?  Should I notify the credit bureaus, ftc and attorney general's office.  Their company is located in Illinois.  They also have many different names and locations - ARA, Inc., Asset Recovery Assoc. and Financial Credit Services.  Apparently they keep changing their names.  Do I notify the Illinois Attorney General or the Attorney General of New York, where I live?

[guiness56]

They can attempt to collect on the debt forever.  However, the still have to follow the FDCPA.

I would file a formal complaint with the FTC.

You can also send the company a cease and desist letter.

[LordAthens]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have received collection letters & calls from ARA Inc.  I had an account w/Citi Bank  over 7 yrs. ago but never paid off.  After contacting Citi, I was told There was no  balance nor any information on me.  I must assume they wrote the acct. off.   ACA claims they bught the acct. from  City but City told me they do not do that.   This must be a scam.

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Chances are pretty high that ARA bought the debt.  While there is a good chance they can't collect the debt based on your states statue of limitations, there are at least 6 states that the SOL currently does not apply to, so if you're in one of the states, they can still collect on you. 

Also, you say Citi has no information on you at all, so how could the rep know if they sold the debt to ARA?  I suspect Citi sold the debt to another "higher class" JDB, then was eventually sold to ARA.

As I said, if you're in one of those 6 states that the SOL does not currently apply to, don't brush it off as a scam.  They could possibly take you to court and you're going to have to pay up.

[girlmarin]

This could be a scam.  I listen to a radio show where this exact thing came up.  The caller said they had an account closed years ago that was charged off and then she started receiving phone calls regarding the account and told to begin sending money.  If you had a discover card 20 years ago you need to call them and make sure the account is really closed and not transferred to anyone else.  You would need to find out if there was debt and it was sold but after all these years it is highly unlikely.